Men Behaving Badly in the Corridors of Power
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14 書香人生 B O O K S & R E V I E W S SUNDAY, MARCH 14, 2010 • TAIPEI TIMES Hardcover: UK CD Reviews Men behaving badly in the corridors of power Though brimming sexual and other scandals, for a book about British politics, Andrew Rawnsley’s expose doesn’t reveal much about the country Gorillaz Vampire Weekend first made a splash Loscil Plastic Beach on the indie-rock scene in 2008 with Endless Falls Parlophone its eponymous debut, an album that Kranky Records BY George Walden inspired very strong opinions, both BLOOMBERG positive and negative. Fans embraced the band’s playfulness and coyly a UK general election nears, clever lyrics tucked neatly within London newspapers are PUBLICATION NOTES readily accessible genre-bending British multi-instrumentalist singer- serving up juicy morsels from songs. Detractors bemoaned an songwriter Sophie Madeleine wrote As apparent lack of depth resulting from Love. Life. Ukelele. while working on a scabrous new book on politics. The extracts, from Andrew Rawnsley’s The an overly simple, cutesy approach to her master’s degree in songwriting at End of the Party, brim with men behaving songwriting, feeling the sounds they Bath Spa University. She put the album badly behind the walls of the prime borrowed from the world of Afro-pop up for sale on the Internet last year minister’s residence at 10 Downing Street. to be used in poor taste. with the help of Bandcamp (www. The book describes how former prime Contra, the band’s second album, bandcamp.com), an online digital minister Tony Blair held foul-mouthed sees them running even further music company. This year, Love. shouting matches with his chancellor of down the path laid out on Vampire Life. Ukelele. became the first vinyl the Exchequer, Gordon Brown. And how Weekend. But if you have the stomach release of BCWax, a new “unlabel” Brown, after becoming prime minister, for it, it is quite a treat. The opening from Bandcamp that hopes to provide stalked No. 10 in a black rage, throwing BY Taylor Briere track, Horchata, named after a spiced Endless Falls is experimental its customers with something that solid objects as well as injurious words at CONTRIBUTING REPORTER beverage popular in Latin America, electronica solo artist Loscil’s fifth can’t be downloaded: a beautiful, long-suffering aides. Cartoon virtual band Gorillaz is back is driven along by a happy marimba release on the avant-garde label collectible piece of art they can hold in The fact that Rawnsley is a political this month with the release of its third and thumping electronic kick drum Kranky Records, also responsible their hands. The artwork for the vinyl columnist for the left-leaning Observer studio album, Plastic Beach, this time while vocalist Ezra Koenig delivers for releasing music by such acts as release is by Dan Stiles, who has also THE END OF tHE PARTY: THE RISE quirky lines such as “In December worked with the likes of Sonic Youth, makes things worse. Should Labour lose AND FALL OF NEW LABOUR railing against the hazards of human Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Low the election, the book could prove a sordid excess. As you would expect, the drinking horchata/I’d look psychotic and Deerhunter. Death Cab for Cutie and Feist and epitaph to 13 years in power, which began BY ANDREW RAWNSLEY guest stars are of breathtaking number in a balaclava.” It’s shamelessly catchy This is ambient music, so there are who is slated to provide all the future and sets the tone for the rest of the artwork for BCWax releases. with Blair’s landslide victory in 1997. 801 PAGES and variety. Who else but Gorillaz no catchy chorus hooks to hum along Leftists at the time viewed Blair as would be able to convince Lou Reed, record. The band typically sounds to and no triumphant chord changes Love. Life. Ukelele. is a collection a Christ-like figure sent to banish the VIKING Mos Def and The Lebanese National best on its high-energy tracks, but to demand your attention. The album of pleasantly simple pop songs. It satanic era of Margaret Thatcher. Yet he Orchestra for Oriental Arabic Music to the album’s last and best track is an begins and ends with the sound of rain won’t blow anyone away with its was never a true man of the left, and his work on the same project? exception. I think UR a Contra is sad, recorded in the musician’s backyard, originality, but it is solid from top to conservative instincts soon showed. the banknotes became a born-again Of course an album this ambitious slow, and spacey, with Koenig singing a fitting bookend for a record as bottom. The instrumentation (often In touchy-feely speeches worthy of Keynesian,” Rawnsley says. is prone to problems, and there are in his sweetest voice atop strings and unobtrusive as this one. Like falling led by a ukelele, though Madeleine Princess Diana, he fretted about the chasm Political junkies will relish this gossipy, times when things simply don’t work. flowery guitar. rain, the music in Endless Falls can also adds guitar, keys, glockenspiel, between rich and poor but did little to entertaining saga. The public will find it The orchestral lead-in to White Flag Keyboardist Rostam Batmanglij is act as soothing background noise, or, melodica, organ and percussion, all close the gap. Nor was he in any hurry less amusing, I suspect. This is a book feels out of place, Snoop Dogg’s also the producer, and he clearly has if given an active listen, a catalyst for played by herself) is eccentric enough to complete the reform of the House of about British politics that, strangely contribution to Welcome to the a talent for laying down unusually endless melancholic musings. to hold your attention, and, most Lords, a risibly dated institution where enough, tells you nothing about Britain. Plastic Beach provides more comic vibrant sounds side by side and At times you may find yourself importantly, Madeleine has the sort of ancient bloodstock continue to lord it over Sexual and other scandals are generously relief than quality work and the track giving them each the space to breathe bobbing your head to beats that barely effortless voice that can carry a cliche humbler citizens. covered, yet mass immigration, which for Broken probably shouldn’t have made in a mix, lending even the more exist, buried deep beneath swirling as far as it needs to go. Like some modish monarch, a tieless good or ill has transformed the country, the final cut. experimental tracks on the record a harmonic drones and intricate, The album won’t make anyone’s and jacketless Blair dispensed decisions gets less than a page. But the songs that are good are comfortable, laid-back feel. The result otherworldly textures. The inclusion Top 10 list this year, but it is definitely from a sofa in No. 10, surrounded by Other social issues scarcely feature. very good. The lead single Stylo relies is an album that feels richly adorned of acoustic instruments such as strings worth a listen if you have a penchant cronies, notably his neurotic press After massive new spending on the on an incredibly propulsive bassline but never cramped. and piano gives the record a more for folky pop music. officer, Alastair Campbell. Meanwhile overstretched health service, deaths to carry the listener through a series organic feel, but I would not go so far the civil service, an ornament of the from the drug-resistant MRSA superbug of vocal performances by 2D (Damon as to say it adds warmth. This is, first British constitution famed for its remain higher and cancer cures lower Albarn), Mos Def and aging soul singer and foremost, a record that puts space neutrality, was downgraded and ignored, than elsewhere in Europe. Expenditure on Bobby Womack, highlighted by 2D’s between itself and its listeners in the Rawnsley shows. education has doubled, yet more parents Beegees-esque delivery of the hook- sincere hope that they will be the Least socialist of all was Blair’s than ever send their children to private line “coming on to the overload,” a ones to bridge the gap with their own religion — or religiosity, as it has been schools. As the rise of the old Etonian reference to world overpopulation. thoughts and experiences. called. It helped Blair to overcome his clique around Conservative leader David On an album characterized by horror at the election of US President Cameron illustrates, social mobility has many special moments, Sweepstakes George W. Bush, inspired a sense of actually gone into reverse under Labour. stands out as the best. The song is mission in the War on Terror, and None of this stopped New Labour left raw in all the right parts and Mos enabled him to say he would answer to from echoing Tory boasts that Britain had Def delivers a fantastic performance, his Maker for the deaths in Iraq. regained its greatness, with London as perfectly framed by the track’s The invasion terminally soured the the center of the world and its financial swelling pandemonium. It is a truly easygoing atmosphere on Downing Street. district, the City, as the country’s original track, a great example of Brown’s un-sunny disposition didn’t turbocharged engine. the magic that can happen when a help, creating “a depressive, introverted, “There’s nothing in the world to rival talented rapper and his producer are Vampire Weekend Sophie Madeleine dysfunctional coterie,” as one No. 10 official it,” crowed New Labour’s architect, Peter on the same page.